Archive for strength

Over this last weekend the agate on one of my favorite pieces to wear broke in half. As I realized this the loss of the situation hit me with a recognition in how the brokenness seemed to imitate certain circumstances in my life. My thought process could have stopped there but instead I began to perceive the significance in a different manner. I knew that despite my sadness of having to retire one of my most beloved pieces that it would be replaced with something better and more evolved. It must have been almost three years ago when I created that particular piece and in that time thousands of hours have been spent honing my craft along with overcoming challenges. It then occurred to me that this perception could also be applied to our own personal evolution.

There have been a series of seemingly insurmountable challenges with a far reaching lineage of turmoil that has defined my past. What I am beginning to realize is these experiences are responsible for making me more whole than ever before. Broken pieces of ourselves that we set aside can be repurposed in a significant way. With the right alchemy of thoughtfulness and intent I can take what languished to transcend it to a higher purpose. Our weaknesses to become our strength.

This is a post that sat in my draft box and I am revisiting it because recently I have reintegrated the broken agate in reference to the earlier portion of this posting into my latest creation. To keep with the analogous nature of this discussion there are occurrences within the process worth mentioning. When the agate broke the original value allocated to the necklaces intended purpose had suddenly become irrelevant. As a result the necklace in it’s broken state sat in a drawer retired of it’s previous function. For many months it stayed there. Until recently.

Inspiration from newly acquired pieces of coral brought back from Bali by my dear friend Kir another jewelry designer of Kir Collection gave the catalyst to rework an older piece. Integrating new and old I finally found a place for my broken agate. Front and center of my latest piece it’s shape that was caused by the breakage emulated the form of the focal pendant so precisely as to cause a perfect nestling when placed inside the agate. The two broken sides of the agate flanking either side in serendipitous harmony. With this reintegration the broken agate not only had relevancy once more but sublates it’s original purpose to something more advanced then it’s first iteration.

It could be said then that it is a sum of all our parts and a willingness transcend that will epitomize our life. We engender our future by relying on experience and observation of our history then applying these to our present. It is the knowledge that everything we thought had gone to waste will eventually fall into place.

Whether it is the number of hours spent creating or how many finished pieces I have in inventory I can’t help but to think of how the theory of strength in numbers applies into the daily human experience. This thinking seems to have the ability to play into almost every facet of our existence. We apply it in many ways. We heal a heart by the number of tears and hours that pass. We gain self confidence by the number of pounds lost. We gain control by the number of days that pass of sobriety. We get strong by the number of miles ran.

Our investment of time spent in our family, friends, careers and ourselves is a direct reflection of strength in numbers. We conscientiously acknowledge this most of the time and are active in the application. Other times we seem to more subtly modify our behavior to achieve similar results perhaps even on a more sub conscience level. Conscience or not it is important for myself to be fully cognizant of the quality of the investment itself.

I have to remind myself that while it might be great to sell many pieces, receive tons of accolades, be frequently covered by the press none of these can be relied upon when you need a friend at three in the morning or when you need support to help you through when your world collapses. For me it is a matter of prioritizing and revisiting the matter frequently to accommodate the shifts that are always occurring. I also have to allow myself a margin of error with the knowledge that inevitably I will pursue counterproductive investments. So what is it that I will consistently dedicate myself to today? Well I can tell you this….I just want to make better choices.